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The Desegregation of
Greene County, Arkansas Schools

    This publication reveals the detailed story of the desegregation of the schools in Greene County, Arkansas and the problems regarding the transportation of the African American school children during the desegregation period. It also includes related information concerning this topic.

   The Paragould Special School District had a total of seven African American school age students residing within the district in 1955. At the time, the school district paid tuition for the children to attend the Booker T. Washington School for the Colored located in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
    The children's ages varied: one in the first grade; two in the second grade; one in the fifth grade; one in the sixth grade; one in the seventh grade; and one in the eighth grade.
    In view of the Supreme Court decision of integration of schools requiring all schools to integrate with "due speed", the Paragould School Board decided that integration in the Paragould Schools, for the best interest of all, would not be prudent and thus continued the segregation as had been done in past years, busing the African American students to the colored school in Jonesboro.
    Soonafter, the school district encountered transportation problems, forcing them to cut costs by employing an ASU college student to transport the children to and from school each day by car for seven dollars a week.
    In August of 1957 a lawsuit was filed by the NAACP against the Jonesboro Special School District for accepting African American students from surrounding school districts on a tuition basis. The suit demanded that the contract between the school districts become void. The school board, based on legal advice, chose to make no decision at the time unless the African American students should present themselves to enter the Paragould Schools.